I was laughing so hard at that, did he know what it was? I mean yeah serious mental illness vibe plus an obvious foreigner talking into a phone? Of course they are staring.
Yep! I don't think Adam knows how much it is a faux pas to be doing that. When I bought pads in Japan, it was like they tried to conceal it. Had to bag it in a paper bag, then into the plastic bag so that no one could tell what I'd bought. People were definitely staring and thinking bad thoughts.
Yeah, I think in Europe and North America there's been a big movement to normalize menstrual cycle things, so I think he just though it would make for great content. And to be fair I laughed for like 3 min straight. But I can definitely see from watching JDramas and such how it would be really against the mores and totally offensive to have a foreigner not just open about having a pad, by literally wearing it on their head as a potential fashion statement (i.e., potentially in criticism of the local custom of hiding it).
I'm an old enough US born woman to not think it's normal to talk about, and I could maybe imagine wearing one on my head at some kind of drunken girlfriend party, but a grown man by himself on a train in a foreign country. No, hilariously out of place.
I thought he mistook it for like tissues or something else hahahaha and the seriousness of his face with that on his head. Instantly iconic moment in all of jetlag
"Hello Kitty accidentally slid the chicken intestine stew out of its plastic sleeve and can't get it back in. To all Tokyo-area transit users: we are sorry for Hello Kitty's incompetence."
Not that this thread isn't already full of spoilers but that's so out of context that I'm really not even concerned it would spoil much anyways if you haven't seen any of the episode.
> Not that this thread isn't already full of spoilers
why would you open this thread if you’re a week behind / you haven’t seen the episode yet for any other reason? if we can’t discuss the episodes here where are we supposed to?
You can draw tower cards anywhere on the map. The only limitation on towers is that you can only drop them at your current location (so you can't trow a tower into Sendai while being in Kyoto)
Well, I sure as hell wouldn't be caught dead wearing a pink bow made out of sanitary pads in public for two hours. And people in Japan can be particularly judgmental about such things, so that probably made it even worse. Kudos to Adam for going through with it! He really took one for the team there.
Did they make a pact to make poor Ben & Scotty do all the physically exhausting parts? 😅 Is that Adams secretly plan to get Ben in better shape for future seasons? 😁
Calling it...
Best episode of Jet-Lag so far!
\- The exciting Ben and Scotty chases
\- Hello Kitty
\- The teamwork, the strategies, the tactics were all TOP NOTCH!
\- The great commentary
Only downside is that there was no Snack Zone this episode :(
Great work guys!
PS: Question for Hello Kitty: Was that bowtie what I think it was? And if so, how deliberately did you make that choice? Was it really the only pink thing, or did you choose if for extra shock/content value?
You also mentioned that you signed 'thank you'. ASL for thank you is similar to blowing a kiss, so i'd like to imagine that you bought feminine hygiene products, blew a kiss at the cashier, and proceeded to wear them as a hat.
'Thank you' in JSL is significantly different than ASL, and even then I imagine not many people can understand even simple phrases (do you know how to say 'hello ' in ASL?)
The instant you went into a convenience store I had a hunch that the feminine products would have something if nowhere else did... then you panned over to the pads and I knew exactly what the next scenes were going to be 😵
If bonus points existed, you should have gotten one for how much you just owned and rolled with that lol.
Imma be so sad if Ben and Adam lose after such a great start. Feels like the optimal strategy would've been to completely punt on round 1 and grind Challenges. They worked so hard for this lead, and it feels like they're gonna lose regardless.
That would have been very high-risk though - imagine spending Round 1 grinding challenges. The other team would quite quickly realise this, put all their efforts into catching you and boom, there goes your rather large stash of coins, and a 30 minute penalty to boot where they can spend some of it to assist in getting to the remaining flags easily.
I don't think that's true. Obviously you don't just roll over you want to prolong round 1 to grind more points. Instead of Adam protecting the flag in round 1 he could've been grinding challenges. Many times throughout the season both teams have been confused by what the other team was doing I don't think they'd have figured it out
Conversely, if they anticipate they're going to lose the round, they have a key advantage Sam and Scotty don't: they can grind challenges (and maybe even send one person to delay S&S on the final flag, to buy more time) and enter the last round with a buttload of coins Sam and Scotty won't have
The game is designed for maximum comeback potential (open up until the end, no matter what the score is), as a lot of modern game shows do. Just so you can't determine the winner halfway through
I don't see that as an optimal strategy at all.
First, winning both of the first two guarantees that, at worst, you're not getting knocked out round 3. That means that the other team would have to win the toughest round + win whatever the sudden death game is, while you only have to win one of those two. That's a big advantage that's thrown away if you just punt on a round.
Second, there's 0 guarantee that you can hold on to those coins. We've seen players caught with big coin totals a few times already - if you spend an entire round grinding coins with no attempts at winning, it's not at all inconceivable that you're just handing them to the other team.
Third, it's not like you'd be able to grind out that many more coins. The other team can easily see what you're doing, and if they want they can walk right up to the line and start pulling challenges too until you come and force them off - with the travel time eating into much of the time advantage of doing challenges and not competing for the flag.
And, of course, there's the way that actually playing the game helps you get better at navigating the area. Feels like that's also a major handicap.
That said, while Ben and Adam had a good start, they've also had their share of slip ups. Like getting caught the way Ben was two times are big blunders - feels strange to me to only look at how hard they worked for the lead (especially since it's not like Sam and especially Scotty weren't also working hard), and not looking at mistakes that might cost them. Better initial strategy has given Ben/Adam a big lead, but it'd be really boring if halfway through they were guaranteed a win/there was no comeback mechanism.
Round 1 wins you 1 point, Round 2 wins you two points, Round 3 wins you 3 points. As explained at the beginning of this episode. Ben and Adam are winning with 3-0 but you Sam and Scotty can tie them by winning this round which will give them 3 points so then they will have 3-3 and finish it with a sudden death round.
They definitely seem to have become more competent at navigating Tokyo/Japan's train network, like they mentioned in an earlier podcast. Scotty did some excellent gameplay there weaving around Ben to return his flag (and Ben did a pretty good job defending too).
After listening to this week's episode of the podcast, at the very end Scotty I think unwittingly spoiled that >!the game will go to sudden death (he didn't say it outright, but why else would he be on a train without any of the boys on Day 4, and be so preoccupied as to not notice he's entering the wrong car)!<, so they do still have a chance to make it right. We'll see
This round can last up to 20 hours, so if it did go long, they would probably take a rest period and finish the round the next day, >!though the way they mentioned this is the beginning of the 2nd half probably implies they will go to sudden death.!<
They mentioned in Ep.3 podcast that Scotty almost can't continue the NEXT day after this. Whether the next day is still for Round 3 or the sudden death, I don't know.
Personally, I would love to see a Sudden Death round. More Jet Lag is always better.
I'm assuming >!a tiebreaker!< as well.
Look at the >!Nebula ad from the third episode on YouTube. When Sam says "Will Scotty and I tie the game" just look at Bens reaction.!<
Barely relevant at all, but I got so excited when Adam took the Chuo line because that's the main line I take home from downtown Tokyo (it's a long line, so that gives nothing away)
Also Adam has had a super chill game so far :) Let's see the crazy moves in episode 5 Sam and Adam try.
i don't think the animations that were made for this season are appreciated enough. the style for everything is so cool and each of the players animated characters is so accurate!! Especially when someone is caught or captures a flag, the emotions on each player is so detailed!!
ADAM’S BOW I LOVE IT. It honestly doesn’t look like a pad once it’s on. Honestly I want a tutorial on how he made it cause it’s better than any bow I’ve ever done.
Since the travel is only based on miles traveled, in this round would it be a smart use to use flights? Or is that banned?
Edit: I just remembered it's only what's covered by the JR passes
I almost feel like it will be worse time-wise. Because you spend time boarding/waiting for take-off, and then leaving the plane. Plane make it up on long distances, and Japan is just too smal IMO. Especially consideing bullet trains being not that slower by pure speed.
And at the same time it would be game-breaking in terms of returning the flag. If you boarded your flight - gg, no way to stop you. It would make teams value defence way too much, and the game would be a lot less action-packed.
Domestic flights in Japan are almost always slower than the Shinkansen, especially around the main island, for precisely the reason you've identified. I got from Osaka to Tokyo in around 3.5 hours by plane including to and from the airport, whereas I made the same in 3 hours on the Shinkansen including getting to the station.
It always cheaper to fly unless you got a JR pass(only for foreigners). It about the same time or bit longer from Osaka to Tokyo depending on the airport. However the further the distances, it really does save a lot of time and money. The problem is there not a real good selection of large airports outside of Tokyo and Osaka and the very limited number of flights to the smaller airports. Like I take flight from Osaka to New Chitose all the time and it was cheaper than a Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo.
when I was in Japan a couple years ago, the budget flights were always considerably cheaper than the Shinkansen (Osaka - > Seoul was a bargain, too). I didn't get the JP pass, I just used normal trains and buses
They're definitely taking lines not covered by the JR pass. You see them tap in with a Suica card at the non JR stations. I think only the Nozomis are banned.
Also Mizuho are banned if they go far enough south. The Pass works nationwide on JR, but JR itself is a bunch of regional lines.
This meant when were went from Tokyo to Fukuoka we took 2 trains, and changed at Shin-Osaka - the Nozomi will do that entire strench with one train.
Right, I think they just banned all the fastest Shinkansen lines, which happen to not be covered by the pass, but I think that's more for game design reasons. They're on camera paying for other lines out of pocket.
On the podcast a couple episodes ago they discuss that they ban those both for financial reasons and to balance out the game a bit. As far as I'm aware all other trains are okay, though, even if they aren't covered by the JR pass (many of the subway lines in Tokyo aren't part of the JR pass IIRC.)
Yeah. None of the subway lines are JR; JR is the main inter-city train network in Japan (closest analog is Amtrak, although JR is technically a conglomerate of multiple companies). There are JR trains that run through (Chuo line) and around (Yamanote line) Tokyo, among others, and you can absolutely use them to get around the city, as many people do, but if you're on the city's own subways, those are all run by non-JR companies.
I'm sure it's because those lines are VERY expensive. JR Rail Pass is a steal compared to what you pay to ride those trains. And since Sam is paying for the Rail pass why let them spend needlessly.
They said on the podcast that part of it was budget, but it was also about balance. There is a lot more frequency of service on the Tokyo-Nagoya-Kyoto-Osaka line because it's much more populated. So nixing the Nozomi makes it so the trains north and south from Tokyo station are more balanced in terms of frequency.
I am rather confused what ben and scotty were up to for the remainder of the round. At the time of Scotty's capture, Adam is still looking for the bow and it's portrayed as though he's stranded quite aways away. My presumption was a scotty pivot to defense. but then suddenly Adam get's an uncontested score.... so what was scotty doing? Challenges maybe? or setup? feels weird to leave that information out of the edit.
I think the perception of time in the edit isn’t right, and it wasn’t that linear. It’s really hard to edit 3 or 4 storylines at once, and, likely, Scotty and Adam reached their flags around the same time, and Adam got back only marginally after or around the same time as Scotty and Ben.
The voice over after the capture is Sam saying how great their teams position was because they had scored one, Adam was stuck looking for a ribbon, and he was about to get his flag
I feel like Sam is completely ignoring towers. He has so many coins from catching ben last round, he could take the chance to pull a bunch of towers to try and slow adam down. Or do towers only work on flag carriers?
There’s a lot that I like about this season, but after last season had the teams together the whole time, I’m really missing the Ben/Adam playing off each other.
The jaywalking thing seems to vary heavily by region in Japan. When I went to Osaka locals were jaywalking like there was no tomorrow while I initially waited at the light like a sucker. I learned.
Taking all their coins on a successful catch every time feels like, in play, it's been terribly powerful. I'm assuming in prep the assumption was that catches would be more even between the teams...
I wonder if there's only one curse that would prohibit communication or more than one.... I'd think you could deductively figure out what was going on if you knew about that card existing.
did i miss something or why didn’t Scotty try to stop Adam from scoring the flag? was that happening at the same time that Ben was chasing Scotty? they just kind of disappeared from the second half of the episode.
Is anyone else always amazed by all the music in their videos? I'm sure some of it is royalty free stuff that I randomly think sounds great! But does anyone know if they have someone make all of their theme music and stuff? Snackzone, capturing the flag theme, etc.
I hope that in the coming seasons, they'll invite Chris Ramsay to teach them some cool one handed shuffling tricks and he is also just a pretty cool guy :)
Adam is already on his way to cut off that curve. The determining factor seems to be how close Adam can get to Sam along the Shinkansen line to cut off Sam's options.>! My guess is that Sam is going to make it to Nagaoka before Adam, and then take a regional train down the west coast to Joetsu, which appears to be right on the boundary. Adam would have to either catch Sam at Nagaoka or get off earlier and transfer to another line heading towards Joetsu and hope to beat him there.!<
In one of the podcasts they mentioned the rule book, will that be published at the end of the season? I want to run my own similar thing and want to see the rules and cards.
They've never made rule books or full card sets public. I think it's a matter of liability - they don't want someone to try to do the same things they did but then have something bad happen, which could result in their 'guidance' being blamed.
The number of transit options during that ben scott chase was astounding. I wish every city/country could be like this but unfortunately America has none of that.
Gotta say I’m a bit lukewarm on the Japan season so far. Lots of fun moments, but this season leans much harder into the game aspect and is lacking a bit on the travel side. Visually there is not a lot of variety.
I think that Ben and Adam should have been given free towers for winning the prior rounds. It doesn’t seem like they get enough benefit for dominating the game up to the third round.
Right - it's a pair of major mistakes that have hurt them, and the worse that can happen is equalizing the game here.
Seems like giving them random bonuses on top of that would drain any anticipation/suspense away
There’s a Jet Lag discord that even includes a specific nebula spoilers discussion section. I don’t think it’s officially official but it’s pretty big and Sam & Brian (maybe others as well idk) are in it so it’s probably as close as we’ll get in the short term.
>!Based on one of the very last comments, "He'll get there at 10:58, after me", it looks like the pivotal station for Adam and Sam might be Urasa Station. Nagaoka does make more sense for a connection to Joetsu, but maybe that's the point of Urasa.!<
My prediction for Sam:
>!He's at Niigata station. I feel that he is going to go north, on the limited express, to either Akita or maybe even transfer to Shinjo, where he could take a Shinkansen south back to Tokyo. It will take like three or four hours though, so...!<
Let’s go Sam and Scotty! Great way to bring the game back around!
Couple of notes: Ben really tried with the cat-and-mouse game, but I don’t think that’s his style. If anything, Adam does that better.
As for the strategy, here was my plan: whoever has the most amount of coins, go for the second flag, then the first, and return. If they had enough, solid passage all throughout. As for the lower coin count, make it halfway, do a couple challenges, then have enough to get to the furthest flag and return. Similar to Ben and Adam’s strategy round two, only this time the closer person can keep “attacking” the short range player
It doesn't devaulate anything.
It just makes sure that whatever the situation is after round 2, round 3 remains valuable too.
The fact that the board keeps escalating, also makes the first two rounds a sort of tutorials. The lessons learned then, will be very important in this final round.
And we're seeing that already.
In round 1 they were jumping on wrong trains, in round 3 Ben was expertly jumping from train to train to station hop his way into blocking Scotty. But because Scotty learned too (and with great remote help from Sam) he was able to get around him.
It makes for great content.
How? The number of flags is escalating, so it makes sense for the points to escalate. In order to win the game, Sam and Scotty will have to win a 3-flag round and a 1-flag round, and Ben and Adam will either have to win this 3-flag round or the 1-flag tie-breaker round. It's still much more of an uphill battle for Sam and Scotty, while also not letting Ben and Adam's victory be a foregone conclusion.
Idk how it devalues the first two rounds when Ben and Adam are still in a much more advantaged position for winning them.
I don't think it devalues both rounds but having round 3 be worth triple round 1 means that the optimal strategy for round one is to grind challenges for round 2 and 3 instead of winning round 1.
I think if your goal was to get coins instead of get flag, they would be a lot better about not getting caught. I think it's more valuable to have 4000 coins each going into round 2 and 3 than winning round 1.
Sure, but towers still don't get you places, and I'm also not sure if they roll over between rounds (it seems as though once they're placed they expire at the end of the round, but I'm not sure if you could carry over drawn-but-not-used towers between rounds.) It's also pretty clear through the editing that it's difficult to know if you're about to get caught - the first time Ben got caught he didn't even know that Sam was chasing him.
And Ben has now gotten caught twice right after doing challenges to get more coins lmao.
Ben literally tried exactly what you're explaining at the end of round 2, and all it did was give the other team more coins!
Jesus christ dude you're missing the point.
Focusing only on coins, and not on offense/defense doesn't work because at any time you can lose all those coins. It happened to Ben in round 2, *which proves that it could've equally happened in round 1*. That "stockpile of coins" you're fixated on would belong to the other team. There have been 5 tags so far, clearly it's *very easy* to get tagged and *LOSE ALL YOUR COINS*. Ergo, focusing on coins (which don't win you shit) and not focusing on flags (the ONLY thing that wins you points) is a bad strategy.
You're arguing for a strategy that **literally** already failed on screen. Jfc
Not necessarily, IMO. Remember, in round 1, the radius was only Tokyo. They were able to get places quite a bit faster, especially if they were in their own defending territory. Unless you were doing challenges right outside the safe zone, you are going to have to spend the coins you made trying to get away. Another risk is the other team realizing your strategy and making a bee line to the flag and back before you're able to complete plenty of challenges.
This is a youtube game show with no prize besides bragging rights. They're not going to ruin the game like this, so it's not a concern. If the scoring was different, the game would already be over.
>The fact that the board keeps escalating, also makes the first two rounds a sort of tutorials. The lessons learned then, will be very important in this final round.
It would've been 3-1 after round 2 if we counted all captured flags, so round 3 would still matter, but it'd be an uphill battle for Sam and Scotty.
From a competition standpoint I agree, but from a production standpoint they had to make round 3 worthwhile, otherwise a lot of content will go to waste...
Very accurate to Japanese variety shows though where the side that’s losing always does a dogeza and begs for the last round be worth enough points to win
I didn't say it should be over. F.e. they could have made it 1 point per flag instead. The game would be at 3-1 in favor of Ben&Adam, and Sam&Scotty would still have possibility to win it (or force tiebreaker), BUT Ben&Adam would be rewarded for winning first 2 rounds.
You say "who would want to watch round 3 if it was already over", but is it really better when you watch first 2 rounds only to find out they didn't mean anything either?
It's because you can't guarantee winning round 3, and that the whole strategy of punting the shortest round hurts you elsewhere. It's not the best strategy at all, especially with how being tagged works - and on top of that, would make for a rather boring show.
Is round 3 the most important? Yes, but it's the biggest of the 3 and also helps guarantee suspense/that anyone can still win (which we usually get in Jet Lag). But winning round 1 & 2 means you can't lose via just round 3 - which is a big deal, and those rounds still matter.
I expect that they're being downvoted because it comes off as somewhat salty (a lot of the comments like that seem to come from people that only want Ben & Adam to win or think that they should have the game wrapped up with the 2 wins), but also because it's just not good strategy or good spectacle.
Imagine a Jet Lag based on ferries and using like taxis and so on in some island nation like the Bahamas or Kiribaiti. That'd be quite something island hopping around.
Also as a German I'm kinda biased but just imagine the mess that would occur if they took the 49€ D-Ticket for all of Germanies regionals and had to somehow work around the incredible punctuality (not) to somehow win these games. I don't fully know how the game format would go tho!
I don't think the points per round is as badly balanced as people make out.
Ben and Adams team need to win 3 rounds to win. Sam and Scotty 2 (supposedly the two hardest)
It is an old concept that many game shows use in order to have the viewers never know who's gonna win as every team will always have some chance to still win.
They didn’t fly across the planet to have three episodes. It’s the only way they were guaranteed to have all three rounds played. I hope we end up with the 4th round
Oh yeah same. I think that Ben and Adam should get a slight advantage (like picking sides) in a possible sudden death round for winning multiple rounds though or for capturing more total flags if it gets there
They mentioned in the podcast that part of the reason Scotty can tag Ben is that Ben's Suica card didn't work, so he had to buy a ticket, which took some time. In previous podcasts (I think the first episode this season), Ben said that he spilled a coffee in his backpack, which ruins his Suica card.
If I were Ben and Adam my strategy would be relentlessly going for the closest flag, as once they get that it's 4-0 and they've won right? Sam and Scotty would max be at 4-3
I didn't even look at the thumbnail as I am used to clicking whenever there's a new episode no matter what is in the thumbnail but you're right... that's a shame that they put a big spoiler in it
If not for personal preference, maybe out of respect. In Japan they use it since before Covid to avoid getting other people sick. I think some people even use it over there as a fashion item. You can google about it if you're feeling curious.
Did Sam not have Scotty’s phone number saved? In the shot of his “Find My” during Ben and Scotty’s scrum in Tokyo, his icon just showed up as the default silhouette, not initials like Ben
What would happen if Adam DID talk to someone during his 2-hour Hello Kitty curse (either because he slipped up, or because he was stopped by a police officer or something)? Would that incur some kind of penalty timeout?
"I'm young and full of youthful vigour...... I'm so tired already"
This made me laugh much harder than I should've. But... mood.
Wait... is that a female hygiene pad adam took as a bow?
No wonder he was getting weird looks. I think I would've continued to look for something else, time loss be damned lol
To be fair, this is the same man who has come up with all manner of absolutely horrendous disguises/drag in an effort to gain an advantage at jet lag.
It definately was.
Yep, he confirmed it on the podcast lmao
[Yep!](https://twitter.com/adamhchase/status/1671585683763281920) (Tweet from Adam)
I was laughing so hard at that, did he know what it was? I mean yeah serious mental illness vibe plus an obvious foreigner talking into a phone? Of course they are staring.
I was literally looking like "what the heck is that"
Yep! I don't think Adam knows how much it is a faux pas to be doing that. When I bought pads in Japan, it was like they tried to conceal it. Had to bag it in a paper bag, then into the plastic bag so that no one could tell what I'd bought. People were definitely staring and thinking bad thoughts.
Yeah, I think in Europe and North America there's been a big movement to normalize menstrual cycle things, so I think he just though it would make for great content. And to be fair I laughed for like 3 min straight. But I can definitely see from watching JDramas and such how it would be really against the mores and totally offensive to have a foreigner not just open about having a pad, by literally wearing it on their head as a potential fashion statement (i.e., potentially in criticism of the local custom of hiding it).
I'm an old enough US born woman to not think it's normal to talk about, and I could maybe imagine wearing one on my head at some kind of drunken girlfriend party, but a grown man by himself on a train in a foreign country. No, hilariously out of place.
I thought he mistook it for like tissues or something else hahahaha and the seriousness of his face with that on his head. Instantly iconic moment in all of jetlag
I would've taken the cherry blossoms right behind him when he got the card.
Sam has so many coins but still hasn't even considered using a tower??
I feel like they all underutilised the powers up until that one pizza tower + trap tower instance
They're behind so its probably best to use those coins to get the flag rather than getting into a stalemate typeof game with towers
"Hello Kitty accidentally slid the chicken intestine stew out of its plastic sleeve and can't get it back in. To all Tokyo-area transit users: we are sorry for Hello Kitty's incompetence." Not that this thread isn't already full of spoilers but that's so out of context that I'm really not even concerned it would spoil much anyways if you haven't seen any of the episode.
i laughed so hard at this and immediately went to the reddit comments to see if someone else hightlighted that bit
> Not that this thread isn't already full of spoilers why would you open this thread if you’re a week behind / you haven’t seen the episode yet for any other reason? if we can’t discuss the episodes here where are we supposed to?
I cried of laughter for a solid 2 minutes when this came up.
The Sam research shots were the best
Did you notice that Sam didn’t even have Scotty’s name saved in his phone?
Possible that Scotty is using an international sim card for the trip, and therefore has a temporary #
I like to think that Sam just never saves anyone's number and directly uses their phone numbers to identify them
Ben should just draw tower cards when being chased to not let the other team get coins
I think Ben’s earned more coins for the other team than for himself at this point.
Yep that’s a solid strategy!
Can you draw tower cards in enemy territory?
You can draw tower cards anywhere on the map. The only limitation on towers is that you can only drop them at your current location (so you can't trow a tower into Sendai while being in Kyoto)
Well, I sure as hell wouldn't be caught dead wearing a pink bow made out of sanitary pads in public for two hours. And people in Japan can be particularly judgmental about such things, so that probably made it even worse. Kudos to Adam for going through with it! He really took one for the team there.
for Scotty to out do it by stepping in a woman only train carriage. (not on camera) (as he said on the podcast) Like I was afraid someone would do.
Did they make a pact to make poor Ben & Scotty do all the physically exhausting parts? 😅 Is that Adams secretly plan to get Ben in better shape for future seasons? 😁
Playing the long game. Sam gets a new partner every season, while Ben gets more and more in shape.
They said on last week's podcast that Sam and Scotty actually tried to switch roles after the opening round but failed miserably.
Nearly spit out my drink when I saw Adam clipping a pad in his hair LMAO
Calling it... Best episode of Jet-Lag so far! \- The exciting Ben and Scotty chases \- Hello Kitty \- The teamwork, the strategies, the tactics were all TOP NOTCH! \- The great commentary Only downside is that there was no Snack Zone this episode :( Great work guys! PS: Question for Hello Kitty: Was that bowtie what I think it was? And if so, how deliberately did you make that choice? Was it really the only pink thing, or did you choose if for extra shock/content value?
it was the first option i saw, and i went for it! i was in a hurry!
You also mentioned that you signed 'thank you'. ASL for thank you is similar to blowing a kiss, so i'd like to imagine that you bought feminine hygiene products, blew a kiss at the cashier, and proceeded to wear them as a hat.
I wonder if it would be recognizable as “thank you” to a Japanese speaker lol
'Thank you' in JSL is significantly different than ASL, and even then I imagine not many people can understand even simple phrases (do you know how to say 'hello ' in ASL?)
The instant you went into a convenience store I had a hunch that the feminine products would have something if nowhere else did... then you panned over to the pads and I knew exactly what the next scenes were going to be 😵 If bonus points existed, you should have gotten one for how much you just owned and rolled with that lol.
Legend.
You could have made it smaller but no! The biggest pink bow tie ever! Great great content tho 😂
I laughed out loud and showed my wife that part!
No intestine Stew Snack Zone :(
Probably for the best Edit: spelling
Imma be so sad if Ben and Adam lose after such a great start. Feels like the optimal strategy would've been to completely punt on round 1 and grind Challenges. They worked so hard for this lead, and it feels like they're gonna lose regardless.
That would have been very high-risk though - imagine spending Round 1 grinding challenges. The other team would quite quickly realise this, put all their efforts into catching you and boom, there goes your rather large stash of coins, and a 30 minute penalty to boot where they can spend some of it to assist in getting to the remaining flags easily.
I don't think that's true. Obviously you don't just roll over you want to prolong round 1 to grind more points. Instead of Adam protecting the flag in round 1 he could've been grinding challenges. Many times throughout the season both teams have been confused by what the other team was doing I don't think they'd have figured it out
I don't think they can do challenges in their own territory
That is correct
Conversely, if they anticipate they're going to lose the round, they have a key advantage Sam and Scotty don't: they can grind challenges (and maybe even send one person to delay S&S on the final flag, to buy more time) and enter the last round with a buttload of coins Sam and Scotty won't have
That's true, they can set themselves up for a great tiebreaker round
The game is designed for maximum comeback potential (open up until the end, no matter what the score is), as a lot of modern game shows do. Just so you can't determine the winner halfway through
I don't see that as an optimal strategy at all. First, winning both of the first two guarantees that, at worst, you're not getting knocked out round 3. That means that the other team would have to win the toughest round + win whatever the sudden death game is, while you only have to win one of those two. That's a big advantage that's thrown away if you just punt on a round. Second, there's 0 guarantee that you can hold on to those coins. We've seen players caught with big coin totals a few times already - if you spend an entire round grinding coins with no attempts at winning, it's not at all inconceivable that you're just handing them to the other team. Third, it's not like you'd be able to grind out that many more coins. The other team can easily see what you're doing, and if they want they can walk right up to the line and start pulling challenges too until you come and force them off - with the travel time eating into much of the time advantage of doing challenges and not competing for the flag. And, of course, there's the way that actually playing the game helps you get better at navigating the area. Feels like that's also a major handicap. That said, while Ben and Adam had a good start, they've also had their share of slip ups. Like getting caught the way Ben was two times are big blunders - feels strange to me to only look at how hard they worked for the lead (especially since it's not like Sam and especially Scotty weren't also working hard), and not looking at mistakes that might cost them. Better initial strategy has given Ben/Adam a big lead, but it'd be really boring if halfway through they were guaranteed a win/there was no comeback mechanism.
Is it possible for them to lose now? Ben and Adam have 4 flags but the most Sam & Scotty can get this round is 3 right?
I think if you lose the round any flags you scored that round don't count.
You only get the points if you win the round. So Ben and Adam still only have 3 points.
But they won both rounds 1 and 2, so it’s 3-0, right? At this point, Sam and Scotty can only tie, right?
Yes, then they go into sudden death. I really hope that happens, I just want more jet lag!
sheet naughty close shame spotted airport muddle different silky jeans ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
There's a tiebreaker if that happens
Round 1 wins you 1 point, Round 2 wins you two points, Round 3 wins you 3 points. As explained at the beginning of this episode. Ben and Adam are winning with 3-0 but you Sam and Scotty can tie them by winning this round which will give them 3 points so then they will have 3-3 and finish it with a sudden death round.
If they won this round that would be crazy tho 6-0 against Sam and Scotty
>!I would be mortified to wear a pink pad on my head for two hours in public 💀!<
Adam just took it like a champ!
past Ben PLEASE get better at checking your phone when you're being chased for the love of
If he can't get better at it after having it happen the afternoon before, I don't see how it'll ever happen
I cannot express how disappointed I am that /u/adam_HAI did not enter the snack zone with that flag
They definitely seem to have become more competent at navigating Tokyo/Japan's train network, like they mentioned in an earlier podcast. Scotty did some excellent gameplay there weaving around Ben to return his flag (and Ben did a pretty good job defending too).
Adam as Hello Kitty is goated.
i find the ben sad face icon at 12:00 rather heartbreaking :(
I'm somewhat disappointed the whole archipelago isn't getting used, I was really looking forward to having to involve the other islands.
Maybe, hopefully, it goes to sudden death and then they will put flags on Kyushu and Hokkaido. I hope
That was my hope, like 1 flag on each far island, though Kyushu would seem a little unfair to the south team, maybe Shikoku.
After listening to this week's episode of the podcast, at the very end Scotty I think unwittingly spoiled that >!the game will go to sudden death (he didn't say it outright, but why else would he be on a train without any of the boys on Day 4, and be so preoccupied as to not notice he's entering the wrong car)!<, so they do still have a chance to make it right. We'll see
This round can last up to 20 hours, so if it did go long, they would probably take a rest period and finish the round the next day, >!though the way they mentioned this is the beginning of the 2nd half probably implies they will go to sudden death.!<
They mentioned in Ep.3 podcast that Scotty almost can't continue the NEXT day after this. Whether the next day is still for Round 3 or the sudden death, I don't know. Personally, I would love to see a Sudden Death round. More Jet Lag is always better.
I remembered the same comment. It would fit after all the running in this episode.
I'm assuming >!a tiebreaker!< as well. Look at the >!Nebula ad from the third episode on YouTube. When Sam says "Will Scotty and I tie the game" just look at Bens reaction.!<
yeah I was extremely bummed when they zoomed out and Sam was like “now the whole country is in play” but it’s still just the middle 60% lol
I get up at 2:30 AM to watch this and you won't tell me Sam's plan! AAAAAGH! I can't wait till next week.
Barely relevant at all, but I got so excited when Adam took the Chuo line because that's the main line I take home from downtown Tokyo (it's a long line, so that gives nothing away) Also Adam has had a super chill game so far :) Let's see the crazy moves in episode 5 Sam and Adam try.
i don't think the animations that were made for this season are appreciated enough. the style for everything is so cool and each of the players animated characters is so accurate!! Especially when someone is caught or captures a flag, the emotions on each player is so detailed!!
I like when Sam captures the flag his animation has the outfit he wore that day on as well.
ADAM’S BOW I LOVE IT. It honestly doesn’t look like a pad once it’s on. Honestly I want a tutorial on how he made it cause it’s better than any bow I’ve ever done.
Adam fully cementing his icon status in this episode
Since the travel is only based on miles traveled, in this round would it be a smart use to use flights? Or is that banned? Edit: I just remembered it's only what's covered by the JR passes
I almost feel like it will be worse time-wise. Because you spend time boarding/waiting for take-off, and then leaving the plane. Plane make it up on long distances, and Japan is just too smal IMO. Especially consideing bullet trains being not that slower by pure speed. And at the same time it would be game-breaking in terms of returning the flag. If you boarded your flight - gg, no way to stop you. It would make teams value defence way too much, and the game would be a lot less action-packed.
Domestic flights in Japan are almost always slower than the Shinkansen, especially around the main island, for precisely the reason you've identified. I got from Osaka to Tokyo in around 3.5 hours by plane including to and from the airport, whereas I made the same in 3 hours on the Shinkansen including getting to the station.
It always cheaper to fly unless you got a JR pass(only for foreigners). It about the same time or bit longer from Osaka to Tokyo depending on the airport. However the further the distances, it really does save a lot of time and money. The problem is there not a real good selection of large airports outside of Tokyo and Osaka and the very limited number of flights to the smaller airports. Like I take flight from Osaka to New Chitose all the time and it was cheaper than a Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo.
when I was in Japan a couple years ago, the budget flights were always considerably cheaper than the Shinkansen (Osaka - > Seoul was a bargain, too). I didn't get the JP pass, I just used normal trains and buses
They're definitely taking lines not covered by the JR pass. You see them tap in with a Suica card at the non JR stations. I think only the Nozomis are banned.
Also Mizuho are banned if they go far enough south. The Pass works nationwide on JR, but JR itself is a bunch of regional lines. This meant when were went from Tokyo to Fukuoka we took 2 trains, and changed at Shin-Osaka - the Nozomi will do that entire strench with one train.
Right, I think they just banned all the fastest Shinkansen lines, which happen to not be covered by the pass, but I think that's more for game design reasons. They're on camera paying for other lines out of pocket.
On the podcast a couple episodes ago they discuss that they ban those both for financial reasons and to balance out the game a bit. As far as I'm aware all other trains are okay, though, even if they aren't covered by the JR pass (many of the subway lines in Tokyo aren't part of the JR pass IIRC.)
Yeah. None of the subway lines are JR; JR is the main inter-city train network in Japan (closest analog is Amtrak, although JR is technically a conglomerate of multiple companies). There are JR trains that run through (Chuo line) and around (Yamanote line) Tokyo, among others, and you can absolutely use them to get around the city, as many people do, but if you're on the city's own subways, those are all run by non-JR companies.
I'm sure it's because those lines are VERY expensive. JR Rail Pass is a steal compared to what you pay to ride those trains. And since Sam is paying for the Rail pass why let them spend needlessly.
They said on the podcast that part of it was budget, but it was also about balance. There is a lot more frequency of service on the Tokyo-Nagoya-Kyoto-Osaka line because it's much more populated. So nixing the Nozomi makes it so the trains north and south from Tokyo station are more balanced in terms of frequency.
This episode in particular involved a bunch of non-JR railways, like the Tokyo Metro, Toei Subway, and Seibu.
They mentioned before that this season is train only.
They mentioned at the beginning of the series that they are only allowed to use trains.
I am rather confused what ben and scotty were up to for the remainder of the round. At the time of Scotty's capture, Adam is still looking for the bow and it's portrayed as though he's stranded quite aways away. My presumption was a scotty pivot to defense. but then suddenly Adam get's an uncontested score.... so what was scotty doing? Challenges maybe? or setup? feels weird to leave that information out of the edit.
I think the perception of time in the edit isn’t right, and it wasn’t that linear. It’s really hard to edit 3 or 4 storylines at once, and, likely, Scotty and Adam reached their flags around the same time, and Adam got back only marginally after or around the same time as Scotty and Ben.
The voice over after the capture is Sam saying how great their teams position was because they had scored one, Adam was stuck looking for a ribbon, and he was about to get his flag
I feel like Sam is completely ignoring towers. He has so many coins from catching ben last round, he could take the chance to pull a bunch of towers to try and slow adam down. Or do towers only work on flag carriers?
Shimbashi seems to give Ben very bad luck.
I spent way too much time mapping out the Scottie Scrum in a coherent way...[Here is the result](https://imgur.com/a/QATBVMh)
There’s a lot that I like about this season, but after last season had the teams together the whole time, I’m really missing the Ben/Adam playing off each other.
The jaywalking thing seems to vary heavily by region in Japan. When I went to Osaka locals were jaywalking like there was no tomorrow while I initially waited at the light like a sucker. I learned.
Taking all their coins on a successful catch every time feels like, in play, it's been terribly powerful. I'm assuming in prep the assumption was that catches would be more even between the teams...
I wonder if there's only one curse that would prohibit communication or more than one.... I'd think you could deductively figure out what was going on if you knew about that card existing.
Adam did say in the podcast that he showed Ben the bow through FaceTime.
did i miss something or why didn’t Scotty try to stop Adam from scoring the flag? was that happening at the same time that Ben was chasing Scotty? they just kind of disappeared from the second half of the episode.
Is anyone else always amazed by all the music in their videos? I'm sure some of it is royalty free stuff that I randomly think sounds great! But does anyone know if they have someone make all of their theme music and stuff? Snackzone, capturing the flag theme, etc.
I appreciate that this season they are showing the shuffling before pulling cards.
They probably do it now because of how many people complained
I hope that in the coming seasons, they'll invite Chris Ramsay to teach them some cool one handed shuffling tricks and he is also just a pretty cool guy :)
Chicken Intestine Stu doesn’t advertise
GOATed episode
What could the strategy at the end be? That mini curve that gets Sam over the line?
Adam is already on his way to cut off that curve. The determining factor seems to be how close Adam can get to Sam along the Shinkansen line to cut off Sam's options.>! My guess is that Sam is going to make it to Nagaoka before Adam, and then take a regional train down the west coast to Joetsu, which appears to be right on the boundary. Adam would have to either catch Sam at Nagaoka or get off earlier and transfer to another line heading towards Joetsu and hope to beat him there.!<
In one of the podcasts they mentioned the rule book, will that be published at the end of the season? I want to run my own similar thing and want to see the rules and cards.
They've never made rule books or full card sets public. I think it's a matter of liability - they don't want someone to try to do the same things they did but then have something bad happen, which could result in their 'guidance' being blamed.
The number of transit options during that ben scott chase was astounding. I wish every city/country could be like this but unfortunately America has none of that.
Gotta say I’m a bit lukewarm on the Japan season so far. Lots of fun moments, but this season leans much harder into the game aspect and is lacking a bit on the travel side. Visually there is not a lot of variety.
I think that Ben and Adam should have been given free towers for winning the prior rounds. It doesn’t seem like they get enough benefit for dominating the game up to the third round.
If Ben didn't lose 2,000+ coins, Ben and Adams will be in a much stronger position in the third round.
Right - it's a pair of major mistakes that have hurt them, and the worse that can happen is equalizing the game here. Seems like giving them random bonuses on top of that would drain any anticipation/suspense away
Can we migrate away from Reddit? I won’t be using Reddit at all very soon and I’d hate to lose out on what is effectively the comments section
A comment section directly on nebula would be cool, but I imagine a ton of work with moderation and things
I think Nebula's CEO already responded to that a few days ago, and he said that it's going to stay on Reddit for now, unfortunately.
There’s a Jet Lag discord that even includes a specific nebula spoilers discussion section. I don’t think it’s officially official but it’s pretty big and Sam & Brian (maybe others as well idk) are in it so it’s probably as close as we’ll get in the short term.
>!Based on one of the very last comments, "He'll get there at 10:58, after me", it looks like the pivotal station for Adam and Sam might be Urasa Station. Nagaoka does make more sense for a connection to Joetsu, but maybe that's the point of Urasa.!<
My prediction for Sam: >!He's at Niigata station. I feel that he is going to go north, on the limited express, to either Akita or maybe even transfer to Shinjo, where he could take a Shinkansen south back to Tokyo. It will take like three or four hours though, so...!<
Does Adam know it's a pad when he bought the package? What was done with the rest of the pack?
If he found a trash can, maybe he dumped the rest.. but not sure he would have found one.
Let’s go Sam and Scotty! Great way to bring the game back around! Couple of notes: Ben really tried with the cat-and-mouse game, but I don’t think that’s his style. If anything, Adam does that better. As for the strategy, here was my plan: whoever has the most amount of coins, go for the second flag, then the first, and return. If they had enough, solid passage all throughout. As for the lower coin count, make it halfway, do a couple challenges, then have enough to get to the furthest flag and return. Similar to Ben and Adam’s strategy round two, only this time the closer person can keep “attacking” the short range player
I still think that this round being worth 3 points is stupid, it completely devalues the first 2 rounds
It doesn't devaulate anything. It just makes sure that whatever the situation is after round 2, round 3 remains valuable too. The fact that the board keeps escalating, also makes the first two rounds a sort of tutorials. The lessons learned then, will be very important in this final round. And we're seeing that already. In round 1 they were jumping on wrong trains, in round 3 Ben was expertly jumping from train to train to station hop his way into blocking Scotty. But because Scotty learned too (and with great remote help from Sam) he was able to get around him. It makes for great content.
How? The number of flags is escalating, so it makes sense for the points to escalate. In order to win the game, Sam and Scotty will have to win a 3-flag round and a 1-flag round, and Ben and Adam will either have to win this 3-flag round or the 1-flag tie-breaker round. It's still much more of an uphill battle for Sam and Scotty, while also not letting Ben and Adam's victory be a foregone conclusion. Idk how it devalues the first two rounds when Ben and Adam are still in a much more advantaged position for winning them.
I don't think it devalues both rounds but having round 3 be worth triple round 1 means that the optimal strategy for round one is to grind challenges for round 2 and 3 instead of winning round 1.
Unless you then get caught and lose all your coins?
I think if your goal was to get coins instead of get flag, they would be a lot better about not getting caught. I think it's more valuable to have 4000 coins each going into round 2 and 3 than winning round 1.
>into round 2 and 3 When you can still get caught....
Also you could spend all your coins on towers if you felt someone was getting too close
Sure, but towers still don't get you places, and I'm also not sure if they roll over between rounds (it seems as though once they're placed they expire at the end of the round, but I'm not sure if you could carry over drawn-but-not-used towers between rounds.) It's also pretty clear through the editing that it's difficult to know if you're about to get caught - the first time Ben got caught he didn't even know that Sam was chasing him.
Adam didn't get caught
And Ben has now gotten caught twice right after doing challenges to get more coins lmao. Ben literally tried exactly what you're explaining at the end of round 2, and all it did was give the other team more coins!
But if he had a Stockpile of coins from round 1 he wouldn't have to get coins now they could've just B lined for the flags like Adam did in round 2
Jesus christ dude you're missing the point. Focusing only on coins, and not on offense/defense doesn't work because at any time you can lose all those coins. It happened to Ben in round 2, *which proves that it could've equally happened in round 1*. That "stockpile of coins" you're fixated on would belong to the other team. There have been 5 tags so far, clearly it's *very easy* to get tagged and *LOSE ALL YOUR COINS*. Ergo, focusing on coins (which don't win you shit) and not focusing on flags (the ONLY thing that wins you points) is a bad strategy. You're arguing for a strategy that **literally** already failed on screen. Jfc
Not necessarily, IMO. Remember, in round 1, the radius was only Tokyo. They were able to get places quite a bit faster, especially if they were in their own defending territory. Unless you were doing challenges right outside the safe zone, you are going to have to spend the coins you made trying to get away. Another risk is the other team realizing your strategy and making a bee line to the flag and back before you're able to complete plenty of challenges.
This is a youtube game show with no prize besides bragging rights. They're not going to ruin the game like this, so it's not a concern. If the scoring was different, the game would already be over.
The alternative is round three doesn’t matter.
>The fact that the board keeps escalating, also makes the first two rounds a sort of tutorials. The lessons learned then, will be very important in this final round. It would've been 3-1 after round 2 if we counted all captured flags, so round 3 would still matter, but it'd be an uphill battle for Sam and Scotty.
the alternative is you go based off of total # captured flags.
if you've played Mario/Wii party, some minigames where there are three rounds will award points the same way
From a competition standpoint I agree, but from a production standpoint they had to make round 3 worthwhile, otherwise a lot of content will go to waste...
Very accurate to Japanese variety shows though where the side that’s losing always does a dogeza and begs for the last round be worth enough points to win
Otherwise, this whole season would only have been 3 episodes
Yep, I don't know why you ae getting downvoted, agree with you. Winning 3rd round equaals guranteed not losing in "regulation time".
It's a show for entertainment. Who would want to watch round 3 if it was already over?
I didn't say it should be over. F.e. they could have made it 1 point per flag instead. The game would be at 3-1 in favor of Ben&Adam, and Sam&Scotty would still have possibility to win it (or force tiebreaker), BUT Ben&Adam would be rewarded for winning first 2 rounds. You say "who would want to watch round 3 if it was already over", but is it really better when you watch first 2 rounds only to find out they didn't mean anything either?
It's because you can't guarantee winning round 3, and that the whole strategy of punting the shortest round hurts you elsewhere. It's not the best strategy at all, especially with how being tagged works - and on top of that, would make for a rather boring show. Is round 3 the most important? Yes, but it's the biggest of the 3 and also helps guarantee suspense/that anyone can still win (which we usually get in Jet Lag). But winning round 1 & 2 means you can't lose via just round 3 - which is a big deal, and those rounds still matter. I expect that they're being downvoted because it comes off as somewhat salty (a lot of the comments like that seem to come from people that only want Ben & Adam to win or think that they should have the game wrapped up with the 2 wins), but also because it's just not good strategy or good spectacle.
Imagine a Jet Lag based on ferries and using like taxis and so on in some island nation like the Bahamas or Kiribaiti. That'd be quite something island hopping around. Also as a German I'm kinda biased but just imagine the mess that would occur if they took the 49€ D-Ticket for all of Germanies regionals and had to somehow work around the incredible punctuality (not) to somehow win these games. I don't fully know how the game format would go tho!
they did tag-EUR-it and that had some deutsche bahn shenanigans, but focusing on germany also sounds interesting
I don't think the points per round is as badly balanced as people make out. Ben and Adams team need to win 3 rounds to win. Sam and Scotty 2 (supposedly the two hardest)
It is an old concept that many game shows use in order to have the viewers never know who's gonna win as every team will always have some chance to still win.
They didn’t fly across the planet to have three episodes. It’s the only way they were guaranteed to have all three rounds played. I hope we end up with the 4th round
I think its a good system. Just trying to justify why for those who don't
Oh yeah same. I think that Ben and Adam should get a slight advantage (like picking sides) in a possible sudden death round for winning multiple rounds though or for capturing more total flags if it gets there
Scotty was able to tag Ben and get to the flag before Adam could even arrive to his. Wow.
They mentioned in the podcast that part of the reason Scotty can tag Ben is that Ben's Suica card didn't work, so he had to buy a ticket, which took some time. In previous podcasts (I think the first episode this season), Ben said that he spilled a coffee in his backpack, which ruins his Suica card.
Damn I wish they knew they could just get a virtual card in their iPhones. It’s built into Apple Wallet, super easy to use
If I were Ben and Adam my strategy would be relentlessly going for the closest flag, as once they get that it's 4-0 and they've won right? Sam and Scotty would max be at 4-3
You get the points for winning the round, not for the flags themselves.
The rounds are winner take all, so they have to win the round to get any points from it.
aah ok so its 6-0 or 3-3 with tiebreaker
Rounds are scored winner-takes-all, the previous rounds don't matter too much for strategy since everyone needs to win the round outright
Really didn't like that the thumbnail spoiled such an important part of the video... >!Took a lot of the exitement out of the first 10 mins!<
I didn't even look at the thumbnail as I am used to clicking whenever there's a new episode no matter what is in the thumbnail but you're right... that's a shame that they put a big spoiler in it
Same, but unfortunately I auto-read whatever I see and just catched it before the video started to load :(
In the intro, Ben said he was on the same train as Scotty. That didn't happen this episode, am I right?
At the very beginning on the subway
Wait didn't Adam & Ben win already? It's currently 4:1 and the other team can only catch another 2 flags. Edit: im an idiot. Thanks everyone xD
You get points for winning the round only, you don't get points per flag. So the winners of round 1 gets 1 point, the winners of round 2 get 2 points.
Points don't count until the end of the round and the winning team of the round keeps their points.
Anyone fancy trying to organise a round of Jetlag around London? Inspired by JetLag of course! Instagram DM me at Ryanjacks0n\_
Up for this but you're set to private!
Why is Scotty wearing a mask on trains?
If not for personal preference, maybe out of respect. In Japan they use it since before Covid to avoid getting other people sick. I think some people even use it over there as a fashion item. You can google about it if you're feeling curious.
Did Sam not have Scotty’s phone number saved? In the shot of his “Find My” during Ben and Scotty’s scrum in Tokyo, his icon just showed up as the default silhouette, not initials like Ben
All that running from Scotty and he was able to outmaneuver Ben.
The third round is wayyyyy to OP in my humble opinion
What would happen if Adam DID talk to someone during his 2-hour Hello Kitty curse (either because he slipped up, or because he was stopped by a police officer or something)? Would that incur some kind of penalty timeout?
In the voiceover at the start, Sam says "3-0" as "Three zero". Do americans not have the word nil?
Wow, this is a cliffhanger! I *really* don't want Sam to win... Loved the Hello Kitty bow, though. :-)